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I just got an email from nfl.com saying it's time to start voting for players for the Pro Bowl. I don't care about the Pro Bowl (though it might matter to players down the road for HOF consideration, believe it or not), but it did prompt this thought: Who are New England's Pro Bowl-caliber players? Here's my list:

* = Starter in the Pro Bowl (if they don't withdraw due to the Super Bowl of course).

Mankins & Hernandez miss out due to injury, McCourty hasn't been half as bad as some people on here would like to tell you, Ninkovich is quietly having a very good season and Mesko is as good as he always is.

I just got an email from nfl.com saying it's time to start voting for players for the Pro Bowl. I don't care about the Pro Bowl (though it might matter to players down the road for HOF consideration, believe it or not), but it did prompt this thought: Who are New England's Pro Bowl-caliber players? Here's my list:

I understand he's probably been better than he's been given credit for this year, but do you really think he's been a Pro Bowl-caliber player? As in, one of the best DBs in the AFC?

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2nd amongst safeties in the AFC for interceptions (Byrd leads the league) and for safety the AFC has who after Reed & Berry? Yep, McCourty & Byrd. Polamalu is injured yet will still probably get voted in but at least one of those safeties listed will pull out.

As a CB with Revis out there's only really Cromartie & Joseph that are known names out there who will get in for certain, then maybe Joe Haden.

If Chandler gets like 8 more sacks to end the year, I'd say he's the only one on defense I'd vote in. Brady, Ridley, Welker, Gronk and Vollmer are the others. No to Mankins, he's made it to many times on reputation.

I don't see how Gostkowski gets even close to the Pro Bowl...his FG kicking been less than average this year.

Mesko should be in with a shout. He's a massively underrated Punter. His stats are massively deceiving, i think he has the shortest avg punt length in the AFC but that's because the Pats only Punt in good field position (we've only had 8 3&outs all season). His kicking into the 20 has been incredible this season.

Spikes could conceivably make it, but is a longshot. Hernandez and Mankins miss out on account of injury, and Connolly misses out on account of being pushed back to guard with Waters' retirement. He would have made it as a center, probably. McCourty gets victimized by the fact that he doesn't really have a clear position, at this point, since I think he'd likely make it as a full-time safety

2nd amongst safeties in the AFC for interceptions (Byrd leads the league) and for safety the AFC has who after Reed & Berry? Yep, McCourty & Byrd. Polamalu is injured yet will still probably get voted in but at least one of those safeties listed will pull out.

As a CB with Revis out there's only really Cromartie & Joseph that are known names out there who will get in for certain, then maybe Joe Haden.

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Brandon Flowers is also a better CB than McCourty, for starters. I agree re: Cromartie: he deserves a lot of credit for stepping up with Revis out, and he's been one of the best CBs in the league. Webb is on this tier along with Joseph and Haden, too, though he's also out for the year.

I'd generally say Leon Hall, but I haven't watched the Bengals enough to know how he's doing this year. He isn't putting up any stats, but that could be because nobody's throwing at him (which means he's doing his job awfully well). Same with Champ Bailey. Ike Taylor hasn't impressed me at all this year, so I'd leave him off.

Generally speaking, I typically regard McCourty as being right around the Ike Taylor tier, aka not as good as any of the guys listed above. In other words, I'd typically rank him as, at best, the 9th-10th best CB in the AFC. With Nickel basically being the new base, I'd split the difference and say that there's about 40 starting CBs in the AFC, putting McCourty in the upper tier (though admittedly, that's really simplistic, and doesn't acknowledge that they don't all fall into a neat, even distribution). Two of the guys who I'd usually put above him are out for the year, but he's still not Pro Bowl-caliber at CB, IMO.

Brandon Flowers is also a better CB than McCourty, for starters. I agree re: Cromartie: he deserves a lot of credit for stepping up with Revis out, and he's been one of the best CBs in the league. Webb is on this tier along with Joseph and Haden, too, though he's also out for the year.

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Seriously? What does he deserve credit for? The Jets are 1-6 without Revis and have allowed 25.5 points per game.
So Cromartie gets credit because they had Revis but stink without him?

I just got an email from nfl.com saying it's time to start voting for players for the Pro Bowl. I don't care about the Pro Bowl (though it might matter to players down the road for HOF consideration, believe it or not), but it did prompt this thought: Who are New England's Pro Bowl-caliber players? Here's my list: